Fixing the Trash Can

No guarantee that this blog will be useful to the average person, and this entry is a shining example. Or unshining, as it were: the trashcan! Our pedal has been broken for months. We haven't had a lot of breakthroughs lately and I was determined to accomplish something yesterday.



This a picture of the bottom of the can. That metal hook you see on the right is part of a long rod that runs the length of the can. When you step on the pedal, it gets pushed up and lifts the trashcan lid. As you see, the relevant plastic part snapped off and no longer affects the metal hook.



I removed the whole bottom pedal piece and trimmed a paint stir stick to fit so that when pressed, the stick would push up that metal hook piece and raise the lid.



I was able to trim it by scoring it on both sides with regular scissors and them snapping it in two.



Then I superglued it in place and wrapped it with duct tape for good measure.



Putting it back together was only slightly tricky. The metal rod that holds the pedal on must be inserted underneath that metal plate piece.



Here it is all finished! Open and shut!